Best ways to measure your employee’s productivity

In order to succeed, every employee within an organization must be productive. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to measure employees’ productivity and determine who is and isn’t pulling their own weight.

But, there are many ways to measure an employee’s productivity, so which should you choose? Here are some of the best methods:

Sales productivity

To measure the productivity of a salesperson or wholesale distributor, look at his total sales, total number of sales, number of new customers, and expenses. By looking at all of these factors, you may soon realize that the person who sold the most is not necessarily the most productive. For example, if a person sold $10,000 in products but spent $4,000 in order to make the sale, is he as productive as someone who sold $9,000, but only spent $2,000 to make it happen?

It’s also important to look at a salesperson’s productivity over an extended period of time. He may not have many sales for weeks or months at a time while he works on a huge deal that closes late in the third quarter. Keep this in mind when determining who is and isn’t productive on your sales team.

Management by objective

One method that can be used to measure productivity in any department within your organization is the management by objective method. First, you will need to set clear objectives for every person on your team.

Remember the rules of S.M.A.R.T. goal setting—every goal must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Then, check in with your employees throughout the year to see how much progress they have made towards each goal. Measuring their productivity at various points throughout the year will help them realize where they need to improve so they can put more effort into that area.

360-degree feedback

If employees in a certain department spend a lot of time working together, you may want to use the 360-degree feedback method to measure productivity. Using this method, each employee within the department is asked to provide feedback on each other. However, before you ask for feedback, you have to train your employees on how to evaluate each other without letting personal feelings get in the way.

Time management productivity

You can also choose to measure an employee’s productivity by learning how he spends each day. There are various tools available that allow employees to clock the amount of time they spend on each task throughout the day. This will help you determine who is getting the most work done, and who is struggling with simple tasks that shouldn’t take much time or effort. But, make it clear that you do not want employees racing through tasks just to make themselves look better. They should record their time honestly so you know whether they have too much on their plates, or whether a client is not being charged enough for the work that your company is providing.

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DISCLAIMER: This article expresses my own ideas and opinions. Any information I have shared are from sources that I believe to be reliable and accurate. I did not receive any financial compensation in writing this post, nor do I own any shares in any company I’ve mentioned. I encourage any reader to do their own diligent research first before making any investment decisions.